With Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen appearing before Congress at 10 a.m. Eastern, here’s how the data set her up, according to Eric Green, head of U.S. rates and economic research at TD Securities:

“None of this data is a game changer, it merely reinforces what looks to be an economy gaining more traction. Yellen will focus more on how conditions are expected to evolve later in the year and beyond and these numbers neither rule out a turn lower in demand or a turn higher.”

Speaking of Yellen, here’s what could get traders yelling this a.m., courtesy of Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets:

“The main event comes later this morning with FOMC Chair Yellen delivering her twice yearly testimony to Congress. While she has generally been dovish to date, any change from that could bring a strong response from the street. At its last meeting the Fed moved up its timetable for the end of tapering to October from the December the street had expected. Since then, US job growth has continued to accelerate and an increasing number of FOMC members have been calling for earlier action on interest rates. “

MarketWatch’s Barbara Kollmeyer has the deets on the latest Bank of America Merrill Lynch fund manager survey, which (surprise!) shows extreme bullishness on equities. She writes:

Among those global asset allocators surveyed, a net 61% are now overweight equities. That difference between those who are overweight versus those that are underweight is the survey’s highest reading since early 2011, and the second-strongest response ever for the bank’s monthly report that takes the pulse of fund managers.

If you were looking for a fourth answer to that poll below in the form of ”don’t fight the Fed,” our DC bureau has you covered. MarketWatch’s Greg Robb is live-blogging Yellen’s testimony, which you can follow along and watch live here.

It seems like it’s going to be tough for small caps, biotechs, Internet names and social-media stocks to finish today with gains given that Fed commentary.

MarketWatch’s Steve Goldstein has pointed out a key Fed quote: “Valuation metrics in some sectors do appear substantially stretched –particularly those for smaller firms in the social-media and biotechnology industries, despite a notable downturn in equity prices for such firms early in the year.”

3)Yellen wants to keep the federal funds rate well below what was previously viewed as normal in the longer run: Check

4)Yellen said the path of short rates will depend on the data: Check

5)Yellen thinks QE will end in October: Check

6)Yellen does not see valuations out of the ordinary for stocks, real estate and corporate bonds: Check

7)Valuations remain stretched in junk and leveraged loan debt: Check

8)Yellen is an uber dove: Check

9)Yellen believes more in free money than free markets: Check

Bottom line, today’s testimony from Yellen is basically a repeat of all her thoughts she has expressed over the past few months in a slew of speeches and a magazine article. My checklist was fully confirmed. The only thing that can extract some more details about the future direction of policy will be the upcoming data and her answers to the questions today from mostly uninformed Congress men and women.

“Investors are particularly interested to see proof that earnings did bounce back in the second quarter. If we do not see solid growth and positive outlooks for the rest of the year, we might see some repricing, as current multiples without growth are not sustainable”

Johnson & Johnson solidly beat analyst projections on its second-quarter earnings when it reported Tuesday, but a cautious estimate on full-year earnings was the likely catalyst behind a drop in shares for the health-care giant.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein and CFO Harvey Schwartz are addressing investors and analysts this morning, after the investment bank beat profit and revenue estimates in the second quarter.

We believe that Plug Power has successfully made the transition from the early introduction of fuel cell power packs in material handling systems to offering complete hydrogen-based solutions for a wide range of material handling applications.

“…there’s been plenty of precedent for names — let’s look at Facebook for example — where the stock can work very well ahead of, and you want to own them ahead of, when their Internet advertising strategy kicks in.”

This year, “the leadership is much more cyclical than it is growth,” writes MarketWatch columnist Kevin Marder in his latest column.

Cyclicals’ “historic performance has paled in comparison with that of recession-resistant growth titles. To be sure, some growth issues act well, yet their post-breakout follow-throughs leave something to be desired vis-à-vis the situation in 2013.

Bill Gross — who also goes by ”that cool dude with the shades” — has been making headlines Tuesday. In his day job, he’s the founder of Pimco, the world’s largest bond fund manager.

As you’ll recall, the company has been hit with investor redemptions from its flagship Total Return Fund/quotes/zigman/132344/realtimePTTRX for over a year now. The highly-talked-about departure of CEO Mohamed El-Erian intensified scrutiny. A front-page story in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday didn’t help matters, calling attention to continued struggles to overcome recent challenges. Among the tidbits, Gross threatened to quit more than once, following El-Erian’s departure.

Entirely separately, Gross also has an op-ed in USA Today about the problem of inequality. Here’s a quote:

“All these statistics point to an enduring loss of purchasing power by American workers, relative to inflation and corporate profits. Wall Street can secretly slap itself on the back, but it shouldn’t. It can thrive with a more balanced partnership. It could wither without it.”

File this one under: clues to the end of this bull market. Your blogger had a chance to attend a lunch with folks from MFS Investment Management on Tuesday, where chief investment strategist James Swanson had an interesting comment about how corporate credit spreads are a leading indicator of when stocks are about to turn.

As you may be aware, the premium yields that investment-grade corporate bonds are paying over comparable Treasurys are very low, and junk bond yields are at record lows. That’s led some to fear a reversal.

“You have to conclude that they are very rich markets and they keep tightening,” Swanson said.

Once those spreads start to widen, it might be a warning sign that a turn for the worse could be coming to the stock market. In past cycles, spread widening typically took place well in advance of a hit to the stock market, with volatility picking up in between. The lesson: keep an eye on spreads.

The Dow is trying to finish in the green, despite the red coming out of the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. The index, which is up 5 points at 17,060, is still being led by the big banks. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is up 3.7% and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is up 1.3%. But the Dow will have some climbing to do if it wants to close at a fresh record.

Now leading the MarketWatch homepage is an interesting story about a “call from hell” involving a customer-service representative (who would have guessed?) from a customer that wanted to disconnect his Comcast/quotes/zigman/89307/delayed/quotes/nls/cmcsaCMCSA cable service. Entertainment aside, MarketWatch’s Quentin Fottrell has a key takeaway for consumers:

“The call also stumbles upon a new weapon being deployed by consumers, much to the chagrin of some companies: make the call, record the call and post the call (for the world to hear). By recording conversations with customer-service representatives, frustrated consumers can acquire powerful ammunition to have their way, experts say.”

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